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Six Sells Jason F. Feb 08

47 comments Latest by Reda

Dubner invites you to write a new six-word motto for the US.

Some fun ones in the comments include:

  • Still Using Fahrenheit, Feet, and Gallons.
  • Hubris: it’s not just for Greeks!
  • One Nation, Over Weight, Over Budget.
  • Our worst critics prefer to stay.
  • The world’s scapegoat except in emergencies.
  • America: Our poor own big screen TV’s.
  • No Lobbyist, No lawyer, no service.
  • We’re mostly corn. Check the label.

Need inspiration? Check out Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure:

From small sagas of bittersweet romance (“Found true love, married someone else”) to proud achievements and stinging regrets (“After Harvard, had baby with crackhead”), these terse true tales relate the diversity of human experience in tasty bite-sized pieces. From authors Jonathan Lethem and Richard Ford to comedians Stephen Colbert and Amy Sedaris, to ordinary folks around the world, everyone has a six-word story to tell.

Can you sum up your life so far in six words?

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47 comments so far

Erik Peterson 08 Feb 08

“Succeeded, despite best efforts to fail.”

Evan 08 Feb 08

Nothing really all that summable yet.

Eamon 08 Feb 08

You can’t say he didn’t try.

Tim Barkow 08 Feb 08

Wow! I never thought I’d made the 37signals blog! I’m one of the founders of SMITH magazine, Not Quite What I Was Planning is our first book. Thanks so much for the link!

[shameless plug] We’re collecting six-word memoirs on our site, and fully expect to do a book two (fingers crossed). So drop on by if you like and share your six-word memoir with us. Six-Word Memoirs.

Blair 08 Feb 08

“Jack of all trades, mastered none” “Started strong, squandered opportunity, fell behind” “Lost it all out of spite”

I could go on and on. Wait, that is exactly six words. What the heck is going on? I think I should stop now. No, really, this isn’t funny anymore. Oh, for the love of…

J 08 Feb 08

Physics is hard. Programming pays better.

SH 08 Feb 08

“She just would not. Stop. Talking.”

Etienne Segonzac 08 Feb 08

“I have found my own way”

Ryan 08 Feb 08

I change careers every other year.

John 08 Feb 08

A designer. Not an artist, Dammit.

or

Shouldn’t have been such a curmudgeon. (are contractions legal?)

or

He doesn’t care what you think.

Charles Martin 08 Feb 08

“Work in progress. Watch this space.”

Mike 08 Feb 08

I can’t bank on potential forever.

Chris Vincent 08 Feb 08

“Drums plus programming equals carpal tunnel.”

Charles Martin 08 Feb 08

“Best laid plans of mice and”

Micheal 08 Feb 08

“Ruby on Rails changed my life.”

Jake A. Smith 08 Feb 08

Classic: Problem exists between chair and keyboard.

Vista: Would you like to continue Windows?

Tim Case 08 Feb 08

Dropped acid, woke up in Brazil.

Nate 08 Feb 08

Wow, 4 posts already before noon on a Friday from you guys. That seems historic, and I love it! Keep blogging on Fridays!

Joe 08 Feb 08

forging intelligence, instigating wars, torturing people

Jon Buda 08 Feb 08

I love the simplicity and the restraint of the whole six word story idea. You can really fantastic thoughts out in a mere six words.

Coincidentally, the day before I read this post, I launched insixwords.com to allow people to get their six word thoughts out to the world.

Proudly built with Ruby on Rails!

Peter Cooper 08 Feb 08

This reminds me of the BarCamp “three word introductions” rule! 3 words is hard, 6 words.. a little easier :) My own.. “Successfully introverted, loud mouthed polyglot technografter.” I guess that could be a description OR a memoir!

Jamie Tibbetts 08 Feb 08

Haven’t achieved much, but still trying

Joga Luce 08 Feb 08

zzz. hunh? zzzZzZzz. ow! what the?!

more to learn, less to sleep

“america eats its young”, induce vomiting!

back to work. I mean it.

Jesse Bilsten 08 Feb 08

“One media to rule them all.” “Dyslexia when is you words reverse.” “Hezbollian Suiciders Nuculear Strategery Mission Accomplished”

Icelander 08 Feb 08

Still lazy after all these years

Joe Casabona 08 Feb 08

I swear I’ll do it tomorrow.

Always busy but pretty successful student.

FredS 08 Feb 08

Get A BRAIN ! Morans Go USA

Jeremy Raines 08 Feb 08

Glad someone is doing hard math

Phonebook 08 Feb 08

I’m not lonely; I’m just alone.

lucky 08 Feb 08

lucky bastard, just fun and love

oscar7g 08 Feb 08

No. I won’t change the font.

riki 09 Feb 08

The best and worst of everything.

Bryan 09 Feb 08

Can you make the logo bigger?

Dhrmil 09 Feb 08

dont stop believing

chrisco 09 Feb 08

For the new U.S. motto contest:

Where did we go so wrong? How to turn love into hate. bush plus dick equals screwed [bad]. george bush, Abu Ghraib, and Gitmo. george bush, our nightmade is yours. God told him to do it.

matt 09 Feb 08

Still haven’t figured it all out.

Russ 09 Feb 08

No. No. No! Well, okay, maybe.

Marlyse Comte 10 Feb 08

From my point of view counting combined words (contractions) as in “isn’t” just as one word is not 100% correct because… well, “isn’t” is actually “is not” and thus basically not one word, even though technically you could argue it is.

I’m here, so I am.

some guy 10 Feb 08

Java sucks. Hm, what about Ruby?

Steve R. 10 Feb 08

Not an idiot, despite the evidence.

Tom G 11 Feb 08

Still The Land Of The Free

Frank Gilroy 11 Feb 08

I actually made it into the book, page 132.

Lazy Programmer, Ugly Runner, NASCAR Dad.”

Web Design 11 Feb 08

tough but beautiful

The Hype 11 Feb 08

An engineer who should be writing.

john 11 Feb 08

“Dreaming my life away accounts for nothing”

wait, thats 7, dang it, gotta get my head out of the clouds.

Fred 11 Feb 08

Goal: Do right, work hard, die happy.

Reality: Blunder about, trying things, growing older.

Reda 12 Feb 08

We Hypnotize, You Buy, We Rule

Comments are closed